Mary Jane

As Mary Jane walks down the block for her first full day of work, she passes a new neighbor who is out gardening. The woman’s name is Beanie Jones, and she offers the girl a friendly greeting. After arriving at the Cone residence, Mary Jane finds Izzy at the kitchen table with a stack of coloring books. She selects one on the human body and instantly begins coloring an image of a penis. Dr. Cone isn’t in the least bit fazed by his daughter’s artwork, though Mary Jane is uncomfortable.

As the day progresses, Mary Jane notes more differences between the Cones and her own family. The Dillards are politically conservative country club members. Mary Jane’s mother teaches Sunday school and plays the guitar for her class. Mary Jane has a good voice and accompanies her mother. She also sings in the church choir. The family home is so neat and orderly that Mary Jane’s parents had a portrait painted of the building. Mary Jane thinks, “The Cones seemed uninterested in how their house or yard looked. The only thing that appeared to concern them was turning the third floor into a guest suite” (15-16).

By the end of her first day, Mary Jane gets ready to leave, but the Cones are nowhere to be found. When she decides to make dinner for Izzy, the refrigerator is filled with nothing but spoiled food. Richard arrives in time to take the girls out for burgers. As the three eat in their car, he tells Mary Jane a secret. The Cones will host a famous couple at their home for a month. The wife is a TV star, and the husband is a rock star. The latter is also a recovering addict whom Richard will be treating, but Mary Jane isn’t supposed to tell anyone about this.

Over the weekend, Mary Jane speculates fruitlessly about who this mysterious couple might be. She isn’t familiar with pop culture or rock and roll. Her musical repertoire consists of gospel songs and Broadway show tunes. Sunday night dinner is a quiet affair, as is usual in Mary Jane’s home. Her father says grace and then says nothing else, burying his head in a newspaper.

Mary Jane’s mother speculates about the Cones and wonders whether they belong to a country club. Mary Jane’s father says they are probably Jewish and changed their names from Cohen to Cone. Mary Jane is informed that Jewish people have odd ways and are different from normal people: “My father put the paper down again. ‘It’s another breed of human. It’s like poodles and mutts. We’re poodles. They’re mutts’” (30).

The next morning, Mary Jane cuts the legs off of a pair of bell-bottom pants to make cutoff shorts. She hopes this style will seem trendier when meeting a rock star. Once she gets to the Cone house, Mary Jane is surprised to discover that the TV star wife is a former child singer and actress named Sheba. She starred in a variety show with her two brothers, and Mary Jane never missed an episode. She notes, “Sheba had long black hair that hung like a curtain almost to her waist. Her eyes were giant circles with lashes that hit her eyebrows. And her smile flashed like a cube on a camera” (34).

In person, Sheba is friendly and approachable. She even helps Mary Jane fix her lopsided cutoffs. Before long, Izzy wants cutoffs too. Then, her parents get into the act until everyone is sporting cutoff shorts. During this scene, Sheba’s husband, Jimmy, enters the room. He is the lead singer of a band called Running Water. Mary Jane observes, "Jimmy didn’t look like an addict. But he did look like a guy in a band. His dyed-white hair was spiked up all over his head” (36).

To help Jimmy through his recovery, Richard suggests that Mary Jane should take Izzy to the grocery store to buy popsicles and lots of sugary snacks. While at the store, Mary Jane bumps into her mother, who happens to be shopping there. Afterward, Izzy offers an opinion: “Your mom is scary” (48). Izzy is also scared of a witch whom she believes is haunting the Cone house. This is why she keeps her bedroom door closed so that the witch can’t get in. On the way back from their grocery run, Mary Jane and Izzy encounter the new neighbor, Beanie Jones. They give her a box of caramel corn and continue on their way.

In the following week, Mary Jane assumes the chore of cooking breakfast. Since Bonnie never cooks, Izzy and Sheba appreciate Mary Jane’s efforts. At home, Mary Jane isn’t allowed to cook unsupervised and is surprised to realize how much she already knows about putting a meal together. As they eat breakfast, Sheba asks Mary Jane if her parents dote on her because she is an only child. Mary Jane reflects, “Was what my mother did called doting? ‘My dad doesn’t seem to notice me; he rarely talks to me. And my mother likes me to help her with things. You know, cooking and stuff’” (59).

Bonnie then joins the group for breakfast. She is impressed with Mary Jane’s skills and asks if she will cook dinner each night and stay to eat with the family. After the meal, Mary Jane calls her mother to announce that she will be handling meals for the Cone family. Her mother is initially put out but agrees after Mary Jane lies and says Mrs. Cone is too sick to cook. Then, she suggests making the same meals each night that her mother is planning. That way, Mary Jane can get everything right.

Later that morning, Mary Jane and Izzy get rid of all the rotten food in the refrigerator and make a shopping list of what to buy. After that, they set about straightening up the entire house. As they work, Mary Jane puts on a Running Water record. As soon as she learns the songs, she begins to sing harmonies. At that point, Richard and Jimmy walk in, and Jimmy compliments Mary Jane on her amazing voice.

Even though Mary Jane is embarrassed, the men begin singing and dancing to the tune. Sheba and Bonnie soon join them, and everyone joins in. Mary Jane thinks, “How could anyone not stare at these shimmering, gyrating people who created a power of sound that ran through my body and filled me up so I was laden with it? Sated with it. Happy” (79).